The objective of this study was to assess the reliability of the Art Reception Survey (ARS) in measuring the aesthetic experience of a Pua Kumbu cloth among visitors who visited the textile museums in Kuching Sarawak. Using this instrument with 28 items grouped into 6 factors, the reliability was assessed by measuring its internal consistency using Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Thirty (30) visitors served as respondents in this study, who were from various age groups and different geographic backgrounds. The results from the reliability analysis revealed that the factors had good internal consistency. Cronbach's alpha coefficient ranged from α = .672 to .978. The results also indicate that Negative Emotion, Expertise and Positive Attraction produced a low intraclass correlation coefficient. Negative Emotion and the first items from two other factors revealed poor item-scale correlations. This study suggests the removal of the Negative Emotion factor, which was revealed to be irrelevant in measuring the aesthetic experience of the Pua Kumbu cloth, and of items 1 of both Expertise and Positive Attraction, making the remaining 21 items in the instrument reliable to measure the aesthetic experience of the respondents towards the Pua Kumbu cloth.

This study evaluates the factorial validity of the 21-item of ARS-Revised, which assesses the aesthetic perception of Sarawak Iban Pua Kumbu among its potential buyers at Kuching Waterfront and visitors of Sarawak textile museum and Tun Jugah Foundation Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia by using a simple random sampling (N=400). An exploratory factor analysis (principal component analysis, Direct Oblimin rotation) was performed to verify the validity and reliability, indicated a new four-factor structure with the 21-item ARS-Revised with five-point Likert scale from the original six-factor. The four-factor solution explained 69.7% of the total variance. Factor loading of each item reflecting the dimension of the four factors, namely; Knowledge and information and the relation of one have on Pua Kumbu, Historical art knowledge, the technical skills in the making and the attraction towards Pua Kumbu, Ability to process information depending on one's knowledge (cognitive stimulation) and Positive attraction towards Pua Kumbu. The overall Cronbach's alpha was high, α = .925, indicating that the items has a high internal consistency. The result obtained has proven that the ARS-Revised had high reliability and factorial validity with a new four factors. This paper highlights the validated and the functional of ARS-Revised with four-factor of 21-item with slight differences in assessing the aesthetic perception of Sarawak Iban Pua Kumbu.

The beauty of Pua Kumbu is not merely a cultural expression but it also represents the wealth of information to pass from one generation to another. The art of creating Pua Kumbu design motifs is based on the body of knowledge gathered through collective memory, and the conservation of Pua Kumbu's knowledge and history. The aesthetic perception stimuli from the audiences are complicated cognitive processes. Hence, this study aims to measure the aesthetic perception of 400 participants on design motifs applied on the cloth according to their gender and background using ARS-Revised questionnaire. The findings revealed that female participants exhibited a greater knowledge of Pua Kumbu compared to their male counterparts. Participants from Sarawak perceived higher in cognitive stimulation, knowledge, and self-reference which indicated that they were more likely to be knowledgeable about Pua Kumbu. Participants from Sabah demonstrated the lowest in both cognitive stimulation and expertise despite Sabah being situated in the same region as Sarawak in Borneo. Gender and background of the participants are concluded to exert significant influence on the knowledge in Pua Kumbu design motifs. Knowledge of Pua Kumbu is crucial for the appreciation of aesthetics in preserving the culture and heritage of Sarawak, Malaysia at its best. The findings of this study may interest scholars and researchers in the unique Malaysian heritage. Keywords: Aesthetic Perception, ARS instrument, Culture, Iban, Pua Kumbu. Survey